Appeals court overturns Tulsa County sentence

Wednesday, March 8th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A man convicted of killing a Tulsa convenience store clerk has had his death sentence overturned. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver overturned Darrin Lynn Pickins' sentence in a 3-0 ruling Tuesday.

The court gave Oklahoma authorities the choice of trying to persuade another jury to impose the death penalty or changing his sentence to life in prison.

Pickins was sentenced to death in November 1990 for the killing of Tina Sue Wolf. The appeals court said Pickins' death sentence had to be reversed because it was based, in part, on a videotaped confession that Pickins had killed another convenience store clerk in Creek County four days before the Tulsa murder.

Prosecutors later agreed that the Creek County confession should not have been used in the penalty phase of the Tulsa trial because the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that the confession had been obtained in violation of Pickins' constitutional rights.

The state appeals court several years ago upheld the Tulsa sentence on grounds that the use of the illegally obtained confession was harmless in light of other overwhelming evidence used to seek the death penalty.

The 10th Circuit judges disagreed. They said they have "gravedoubt" that jurors would have chosen the death penalty if the confession had not been improperly admitted as evidence.

The judges pointed out that it would have taken only one juror to have ruled out the death sentence. Assistant Attorney General Robert Whittaker said Tulsa prosecutors will be consulted before a decision is made on how to proceed.